The New Confessions

Lots of the Vintage International covers are really great; this is one of my favorites. The novel concerns "John James Todd, forgotten hero of the cinematic avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s," and the illustration looks exactly right for that period.

Willful Creatures (paperback)

I was on the fence about this one:



But then I remembered how much I (and others) disliked the hardcover and I started to feel better about the paperback. Here's the hardcover:

Murder in Amsterdam

I'm far from a fan of this kind of design, but thank you, thank you for not putting a weapon or some such thing on the cover. (Both Van Gogh and his assailant were riding bicycles).

The Subway Chronicles

Put this one in the "a blind man could have seen this one coming" category. What's suprising to me is that it really says nothing about New York -- the little medallion of skyline hardly does it.

New Harry Crews Book

Crews' novella, the first thing he's published in 8 years, is not exactly getting great reviews. And the cover looks pretty dreadful (regardless of the quality of the scan):


That said, I'm a big Crews fan. A Childhood: The Biography of a Place is probably my favorite memoir, and A Feast of Snakes simply kicks ass. If you've not yet read any Crews, I would start with those. And here's a great NY Times article about him.

The Bloodless Revolution

I often feature the UK and US versions of the same book, but I've never noticed such a difference in marketing as exists with this book.

The first image is the UK jacket. Check out the subtitle and the image: the whole "East meets West" theme of this book comes through pretty clearly, doesn't it?

Now the US version: The subtitle is completely different, referring to "a cultural history" instead of explicitly naming India and radical vegetarians. And is that a picture of Adam & Eve on the US cover? (Yes, I see Ghandi too, but...)

Why, smart reader, are there such differences between these? Are such differences necessary to sell this book in these different markets?

LBJ

A biography of the only president who used to (proudly, by all accounts) relieve himself in the White House Garden should be bold as all hell. Thankfully, it is:

A Tale of Two Sisters

The subject of this is (surprise!) sisters in London. Contemporary London. Yeah, I don't get the Wild West type either.

In The Wake

Forget the picture -- yes, this book is about a family that drowns -- and look at that letter spacing. And now tell yourself that you'll *never* do anything like that.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Since this book is getting so much press, I thought I would post the cover. I don't really feel strongly one way or the other. So what do you think?